Re: beyond:what, or whom? re-sent: faulty slip.net

[Paolo Valladolid <pvallado@waynesworld.ucsd.edu>]

> can we get beyond our *own* limitations in this chosen medium? even those
> limitations that seem fenced & barriered by what we (possibly: 
>mistakenly)
> assume to be our heroes boundaries?
> can we aspire to something of more lasting value than feeding the harsh
> fecundity of a two-headed, two-dimensional societal beast with it's 
>continual
> this-vs.-thatting?
> anyway.
> well.
> sorry if i blathered: i do that, now & again: i mean no harm.
> i promise i'll post w/something more concrete, sometime.
> best to all,
> david torn

I apologize in turn for not answering David's questions directly.
It's just that they remind me of a questionnaire my favorite college
professor George Lewis asked us the first day of the Introduction To
Music Making class.  From memory, the questions were something like these:

1. What kinds of music do you listen to?
2. How does the music reach your ears (radio/CD player/etc.)?
3. Who decides what music will reach your ears?
4. How much of a role does money play in the way music reaches your ears
(sorry, I probably phrased it wrong)?
5. How much of a role does money play in the decision-making involved in
what music reaches your ears?
6. What influences your music listening choices?
a. Parents (do they encourange/restrict)
b. Friends  (are their tastes influenced by fashion trends?)
c. Media

There were more questions than that of course.  This questionnaire and
George's playing of non-commercial music (some of it unlistenable to
me at the time) pissed off some students.  One of them was so pissed off
that for his performance project, he simply stood up in front of class and
said "This is bullshit. This is bullshit. This is..." (ad infinitum).

When I first got to know George, I felt similarly for a while.  If he
saw cassettes in my backpack, he would pull them out, pop them into his
stereo, listen to them and proceed to tellme I was listening to crap!
Imagine the damage to the psyche of a young man who believed the 
Rippingtons and Spyro Gyra actually played jazz! ^_^

Later, I finally understood my musical tastes had been dictated to me
by the radio and magazines.  The music I had listened to and liked were
definitely influenced by big money. I began to realize I had no 
appreciation
for truly creative music because I hadn't been exposed to it. Gradually,
I stopped listening to the radio.  Today, I only listen to the radio
for football games. ^_^


Paolo Valladolid
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